Meanings
- uncountableEnjoyment derived from hatred of a person or thing.
The patron saint of hathos connoisseurs, H.L. Mencken, was a brave soul, but even a fellow as sturdy and unstinting as he might have been struck dumb in the presence of the extravagantly hathotic Kathie Lee Gifford.
1996 January 7, Rod Dreher, “Hate it, Love it”, in Sun-Sentinel
Origin
Blend of hate + pathos. According to journalist Alex Heard, this word was coined in 1985 when he was searching for a word to describe the "cringe-y feeling you get when celebs go AWOL" and attended a Super Bowl party where he and another guest, then-Bob Dole press aide Scott Richardson, exchanged ideas until they came up with "hathos." The word's first apparent use in print was in an essay by Heard, published in The Washington Post on May 17, 1987.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
hathos. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hathos
“hathos.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hathos. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hathos,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hathos.
Source: hathos on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.